torsdag 20 juni 2013

A weenie tech

Arabian Nights had a lot of new and innovative design. It's easy to forget exactly just how many new things were introduced in this set; lands with other abilities than just tapping for coloured mana, spirit link abilitys (El-Hajjaj), cantrips (Jewled Bird), coin flipping (Bottle of Suleiman) and minus-counters (Unstable Mutation) were all introduced here, just to name a few. One thing that I found particularly sweet were the cycles of powerful creatures.

Of course Alpha had introduced a cycle before this; the 'boons' that gave you three of something for one coloured mana (Ritual, Salve, Ancestral, etc). Arabian Night took it one step further with the introduction of Djinns and Efreets. Four of the colours originally had one Djinn and one Efreet each, and these creatures proved to be some of the most powerful creatures printed for years to come. Cards like Juzam Djinn, Serendib Efreet and Ehrnam Djinn are reasons why City in a Bottle is powerful card.

White didn't get any Djinns or Efreets at this point (there actually only exists one white Djinn/Efreet; Ruham Djinn from Invasion 7 years later). Instead white got the super-hoser King Solomon:

6 months before the legendary rule. Bo-yah!

City in a Bottle is well played in White Weenie, but it's not really useful in terms of the main strategy (i.e. it doesn't deal any damage). King Solomon can kill 10 of the most important creatures in the format;
the 8 classic Djinns/Efreets from Arabian Nights, Mahamothi Djinn, and
Old Man of the Sea (errated to Djinn). He is also a beatstick, and let's your weenie deck support cards like Army of Allah and Shahrazad more easily. It's a far worse solution to City of Brass and Library, but I could see the King make some noise in a white-red weenie deck with Blood Moons and bolts. Also, it's about as awesome as a solution gets to destroy Juzam.

Looks like there will be a tournament at Warcon (Varberg) in five weeks btw, it will certainly be good times! Join if you have the opportunity :)